Developing Students’ Writing Skills through Personalization Activities: Action Research at Thai Nguyen Medical College

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* PHẠM THỊ VIỆT HÀ DEVELOPING STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILLS THROUGH PERSONALIZATION ACTIVITIES: ACTION RESEARCH AT THÁI NGUYÊN MEDICAL COLLEGE (Phát triển Kỹ Viết cho Sinh viên thơng qua Hoạt động Cá nhân hóa: Nghiên cứu Hành động Trường Cao đẳng Y tế Thái Nguyên) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 Hanoi, 2014 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* PHẠM THỊ VIỆT HÀ DEVELOPING STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILLS THROUGH PERSONALIZATION ACTIVITIES: ACTION RESEARCH AT THÁI NGUYÊN MEDICAL COLLEGE (Phát triển Kỹ Viết cho Sinh viên thông qua Hoạt động Cá nhân hóa: Nghiên cứu Hành động Trường Cao đẳng Y tế Thái Nguyên) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 SUPERVISOR: NGÔ TỰ LẬP, PhD Hanoi, 2014 DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY I certify that this minor thesis entitled “Developing students’ Writing Skills through Personalization Activities: Action Research at TMC” is the result of my own work for the Degree of Master of Arts at University of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University, Hanoi and that this thesis has not been submitted to any other tertiary institution Signature Phạm Thị Việt Hà i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincerest thanks and appreciation to those who have supported me in completing the thesis First and foremost, I am grateful to Dr Ngô Tự Lập for his valuable guidance and advice He inspired me greatly to work on this topic His willingness to help and answer my questions has contributed enormously to my study results I am in debt to Dr Lê Hùng Tiến and the staff members of the Post-graduate Department, and all the lecturers at ULIS, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their precious lectures, which provided me with scientific knowledge useful to my study I also would like to thank the Board of Rectors and my colleagues in Foreign Language Faculty at Thái Nguyên Medical College for helping me conduct the research My special thank is to all the students of class CD7A4 for joining in my research Finally, an honorable mention goes to my beloved husband Nguyễn Quốc Huy, my kids Giang and Việt, and my friends for their encouraging and supporting me in completing the thesis ii ABSTRACT In the trend of globalization, English is increasingly becoming an important tool for international communication Therefore, developing students’ communicative competence in English is vital for their current study and future jobs However, in the author’s teaching practice process, the author finds that the students often have problems with writing skill In general, their writing skill is poor There are various reasons for this fact However, an important reason is that the teaching activities and writing topics are not related and relevant to the students In other words, they not match with the students’ personal factors and background In solving this problem, the author believes that personalization activities can help develop the students’ writing skill The author conducted action research on 54 students from a class at Thái Nguyên Medical College during two months in the second semester The aim of the research is to find out whether using PA can help develop students’ writing skill Personalization activities were implemented in four writing lessons After that, the students’ opinions were collected through a questionnaire survey and analyzed The result of the research revealed that using PA did help improve writing skill of students at Thái Nguyên Medical College However, the use of PA needs to be flexible and careful under certain control and in combination with other teaching methods in order to make writing lessons more effective iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS - ELT: English language teaching - N: Number of students - PAs: Personalization Activities - SLA: Second Language Acquisition - TMC: Thái Nguyên Medical College iv LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Students’ time of learning English 18 Table 2: Students’ attitudes towards writing skill 18 Table 3: Students’ freedom of writing topic choice 19 Table 4: Students’ difficulties in writing topics assigned by teachers 20 Table 5: The students’ biggest difficulties in writing 20 Table 6: The students’ opinions about the importance of interests in writing 21 Table 7: Students’ needs of personalization activities 21 Table 8: Students’ motivation in personalized writing class 24 Table 9: Students’ self-estimation about their performance in personalized writing class 24 Table 10: Advantages of personalized writing class for students 25 Table 11: Students’ opinions about personalization of practicing forms 26 Table 12: Students’ difficulties in personalized writing class 27 Table 13: Students’ feelings towards in-class discussion on their viewpoints 28 Table 14: Students’ opinions about grading basing on students’ language competence 29 Table 15: Students’ opinions about continuing using PAs 29 v TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements i Abstract ii List of abbreviations iv List of charts, figures and tables v Table of contents vi PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims of the study Research question Scope of the study Method of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Literature review 1.1.1 Why teaching writing skill? 1.1.2 Changes teaching writing skill 1.2 Theoretical background 1.2.1 Learner factors in second language teaching 1.2.2 The importance of personalization activities in teaching English as a second language 1.2.2.1 Personalization activities (PAs) 1.2.2.2 The benefits of personalization activities in developing students’ writing skill 1.2.3 Action research 10 1.2.3.1 Definition of action research 10 1.2.3.2 The main characteristics of action research 10 1.2.3.3 Action research procedure 11 1.3 Summary 11 CHAPTER 2: THE ACTION RESEARCH ON TEACHING WRITING WITH PERSONALIZATION ACTIVITIES 13 2.1 The research questions 13 vi 2.2 The setting of the research 13 2.3 The participants 14 2.4 Data collection and analyzing instruments 14 2.5 Action research procedure 14 2.5.1 Planning stage 15 2.5.2 Acting stage 15 2.5.2.1 Before the intervention with PAs 15 2.5.2.2 Implementing personalization activities 21 2.5.3 Data analyzing stage 23 2.5.3.1 Data collection 23 2.5.3.2 Data analysis 24 2.5.4 Reflecting stage: Findings and Discussion 29 PART C: CONCLUSION 31 Recapitulation and conclusion 31 Pedagogical implications 31 Limitations Suggestions for further study 32 REFERENCE 33 APPENDICES I APPENDIX PHIẾU KHẢO SÁT Ý KIẾN SINH VIÊN VỀ KỸ NĂNG VIẾT I APPENDIX PHIẾU KHẢO SÁT Ý KIẾN SINH VIÊN VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG HOẠT ĐỘNG CÁ NHÂN HÓA TRONG GIỜ HỌC VIẾT III APPENDIX TABLE OF WRITING LESSONS USING PERSONALIZATION ACTIVITIES VI APPENDIX SAMPLE LESSON PLANS WITH PERSONALIZATION ACTIVITIES VIII vii PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale English has been considered as a necessary and effective tool for global integration and it has been brought into teaching in almost every nation throughout the world In Vietnam, foreign languages, especially English, have been considered as a major subject This was affirmed for the first time in the Prime Minister’s Decision numbered 251-TTg in 1972 The importance of English is once again stated in Laws of Education in 1998 Therefore, teaching English has received a great deal of attention in schools and educational institutions Among the four language skills (listening, reading, speaking and writing), writing is often considered as a necessary but challenging skill by many learners Writing skill helps to transmit messages among people It can be considered as the most effective tool to save information Also, in learning language, writing is an interactive skill to other skills – speaking, listening and reading - for instance, taking notes while listening, noting down information while reading, or presenting the outline of a speech In the long term, writing skill serves a wide range of functions for the language user like writing an application form, reports, journals Therefore, learning to write is always necessary to learners both for their study and working process However, at Thái Nguyên Medical College (TMC), where all the students are nonEnglish majors, the instruction of writing skill appears not very effective One of the most important reasons is that writing topics and activities are often designed for all the students without or with very little attention to learner factors and differences among them This practice, sometimes called “one-size-fits-all” approach, seems not to encourage learners to participate actively into the teaching and learning activities Generally, their writing test results are poor Moreover, communication is a process which occurs between individuals who are different in their aptitudes, interests, learning styles, beliefs, backgrounds, and so on; and when students are allowed to write something about themselves or to something that they think they can they will it to their best Therefore, finding writing activities which account for learner differences and can motivate the students to participate actively in the learning is really necessary Implementing personalization activities in writing lessons may be the solution to the problem PART C: CONCLUSION Recapitulation As mentioned previously, the research reported in this thesis aimed at exploring the effectiveness of PAs in developing students’ writing skill The problem of the writing classroom is identified as the writing activities are not involving and relevant to the students The students’ personal factors are not taken into consideration when the teachers conduct these activities As the result, the students are not motivated to write and their writing performance is poor The author affirms that this problem is true through a class observation of a writing lesson by another teacher and a questionnaire survey to here from the students One suggestion for solution is using PAs in English classrooms which had been brought into practice widely in the world Three questions are raised: “What are the students’ needs, attitudes, and difficulties in learning writing at TMC? How much personalization activities help develop students’ writing skill? And what are the implications for teaching writing skill in general?” To answer these questions, the author did a research at TMC The research was conducted at TMC during weeks in the form of an action research, with the participation of 54 students from class CD7A4 and three voluntary teachers of English After PAs were implemented in six, a questionnaire survey was delivered to the students of the class studied for collecting their feedback information An interview was also carried out to the teachers to hear their opinions about using personalization activities in a writing classroom The results of the survey prove that PAs had positive effects on developing students’ writing skill The students’ motivation to take part in writing tasks increased To their self-estimation of writing skill, most of the students said that they write better and had fewer difficulties with generating ideas, vocabulary and grammar However, teachers need to pay attention to unexpected problems of PAs to make their writing lessons more successful Pedagogical implications On the basis of the findings of the research, the author would like to give some recommendations on teaching English writing skill for college students 31 Firstly, learner factors should be studied carefully by the teacher in order to have a full understanding of their differences Knowing how they are, what they need, what they want, how they learn, where they are, etc will help the teacher have successful writing lessons and students progress in their learning Secondly, teachers should be flexible in choosing and conducting activities teaching writing skill The course book Lifelines Elementary was designed by foreigners aiming to be used by students all over the world However, there are still factors that not match Vietnamese conditions Therefore, teachers should not keep tightened to the book contents, but change it and adapt it to Vietnamese students This can be done well by personalization activities Thirdly, PAs should be used more frequently as an effective way to develop students’ writing skill It also creates an open environment to confidently express themselves on paper and communicate real and meaningful information about themselves Last but not least, to make highest use of PAs, each activity needs choosing and organizing very carefully The activities should be involving and relevant to the students and the training purposes Limitations and suggestions for further study In this thesis, the results of the action research might be tentative due to some following factors: Firstly, the action research was carried out in a comparatively short period of time (4 weeks) because if the study had taken longer, it might affected the college syllabus Secondly, the number of the participants was only 54 students Therefore, the results of the research cannot be generalized for all the colleges The third limitation was this research only stopped at finding out whether PAs could help develop students’ writing skill It did not study in detail which activities should be used in each instruction circumstance Despite these limitations, I strongly believe that my research is successful to some extend Though it is just a small-scaled research on the issue, it may provide some helpful suggestions for college teachers in teaching writing skill in particular as well as other language skills in general For further studies, large-scaled research should be conducted in order to gain more exact and believable results Besides, PAs should be used to teach other language skills 32 REFERENCES Vietnamese references: Quốc Hội (1998), Luật Giáo dục, số 11/1998/QH10, Hà Nội Thủ tướng Chính phủ (1972), Quyết định Thủ tướng Chính phủ, số 251-TTg, Hà Nội English references: Alexander, L G (1965), Essay and Letter Writing, Longman Bandura, A (1977), Social Learning Theory, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Beyer, B K (1992), Teaching thinking: An integrated approach, In J W Keefe & H Brown, H D (2001), Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy, PEARSON Longman Teaching by Principles Time, White Plains, NY 10606 Cohen, Marison, Morrison (2007), Research Methods in Education, UK Corey, S ̣(1952), Action Research on Change in Schools, Columbia University's Teacher's College Corey, S ̣(1953), Action Research to Improve School Practice, Columbia University's Teacher's College Crandall, J (2006), The Power of Writing: The Importance of Writing in EFL, University of Maryland, Baltimore Gardner, Howard (1983; 1993) Frames of Mind: The theory of multiple intelligences, New York: Basic Books The second edition was published in Britain by Fontana Press 466 + xxix pages Gardner, Howard (1999) Intelligence Reframed Multiple intelligences for the 21st century, New York Glasser, W (1986), Choice theory in the classroom, New York: Harper Perennial Harmer, J (1991), The Practice of English Language Teaching – New Edition, Longman, New York Hargreaves, D 2004 Personalizing Learning: Next Steps in Working Laterally, London: Specialist Schools and Academics Trust Hedge, T (2005), Writing, 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press Hutchinson, T (1999), Lifelines Elementary – Student’s workbook, Oxford University Press Jolley, D (1984), Writing tasks, Cambridge University Press, London 33 Krashen, S D (1981), Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning, University of South California: Pergamon Press Inc Krashen, S.D (1981), Second Language Acquisition and Second Language, Oxford: Pergamon Krashen, Stephen D (1987), Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition, Prentice-Hall International Krashen, S.D (1985), The Input Hypothesis: Issues and Implications, New York: Longman LoCastro, V (1994), Teachers Helping Themselves: Classroom Research and Action Research, The Language Teacher 18, (2), 4-7 Nunan, D (1990), Action Research in the Language Classroom, In J Richards & D Nunan, D (1992), Research Methods in Language Learning, Cambridge: CUP Nunan, D (1993), Second language teacher education (pp 62-81), Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press Raimes, A (1983), Techniques in Teaching Writing, Oxford University Press, New York Richards, J C (2006), Communicative Language Teaching Today, Cambridge University Press, New York, NY 10013-2473, USA Richards, J C., Platt, J., & Platt, H (1992), Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, Longman, UK Rosamond, M (1994), The communicative approach to language teaching, New York: Routledge, pp 33–42 Tsui, A.B.M & Johnson, I (Eds.) (1993), Teacher Education and development, Education Papers No 18, Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong, 177 pp Worsley, D., Landzberg, J., Papagiotas, A (2004), Equity in Education, On the path to personalized teaching, Colombia University, USA From the Internet Adams, P (2003 Personalizing activities for ESL/EFL students Teach-this.com http://barbarabray.net/2011/11/11 11-tips-to-personalized-learning Ngọc Bích (2013), , Cá nhân hóa Dạy học Ngoại ngữ, Báo Điện tử Dân Trí The Internet TESL Journal, Vol VIII, No 5, May 2002 http://iteslj.org/Articles/LinPersonalizing.html 34 APPENDICES APPENDIX PHIẾU KHẢO SÁT Ý KIẾN SINH VIÊN VỀ KỸ NĂNG VIẾT (Pre-intervention with PAs) Phiếu khảo sát nhằm phục vụ cho đề tài luận văn thạc sỹ tôi: “Phát triển kỹ viết sinh viên thông qua hoạt động cá nhân hóa: Nghiên cứu hành động trường Cao đẳng Y tế Thái Nguyên” Rất mong em giúp đỡ cách trả lời câu hỏi phiếu khảo sát Chân thành cảm ơn em! Em trả lời câu hỏi sau cách khoanh tròn phương án Em học tiếng Anh thời gian bao lâu? A Dưới năm B 1-3 năm C 4-7 năm D Trên năm Em có thích học kỹ viết khơng? A Rất thích B Thích C Khơng thích D Khơng thích E Ghét Em có hay phép tự chọn chủ đề viết không? A Luôn B Thường xuyên C Thỉnh thoảng D Hiếm E Khơng Em có hay gặp khó khăn với chủ đề viết cô giáo giao muốn viết chủ đề khác không? A Luôn B Thường xuyên C Thỉnh thoảng D Hiếm I E Không Khó khăn lớn em viết gì? A Em khơng có đủ vốn từ để viết B Em thường bị sai ngữ pháp C Em không thích chủ đề viết D Em khơng biết nhiều chủ đề viết cô giáo giao E Những khó khăn khác: Có ý kiến cho người viết tốt chủ đề u thích Em có đồng ý với ý kiến khơng? A Hoàn toàn đồng ý B Đồng ý phần C Khơng đồng ý Em có muốn viết thân em phù hợp với em khơng? A Có B Em không quan tâm C Không Chân thành cảm ơn em! II APPENDIX PHIẾU KHẢO SÁT Ý KIẾN SINH VIÊN VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG HOẠT ĐỘNG CÁ NHÂN HÓA TRONG GIỜ HỌC VIẾT (Post-intervention with PAs) Phiếu khảo sát nhằm phục vụ cho đề tài luận văn thạc sỹ tôi: “Phát triển kỹ viết sinh viên thơng qua hoạt động cá nhân hóa: Nghiên cứu hành động trường Cao đẳng Y tế Thái Nguyên” Rất mong em giúp đỡ cách trả lời câu hỏi phiếu khảo sát Chân thành cảm ơn em! Em trả lời câu hỏi sau cách khoanh tròn phương án Em có hứng thú với chủ viết liên quan đến thân khơng? A Có Em hứng thú B Em khơng hứng thú C Khơng Em hồn tồn khơng hứng thú Theo đánh giá em, em có viết tốt chủ đề viết em lựa chọn không? A Có Em viết tốt B Có Nhưng khơng đáng kể C Không Em không viết tốt Thuận lợi lớn em viết chủ đề em tự chọn gì? A Em nảy sinh ý tưởng dễ dàng B Em tự tin với vốn từ chủ đề em chọn C Em có nhiều nguồn tài liệu tham khảo D Em gặp vấn đề ngữ pháp E Em khai thác kiến thức sãn có tốt F Thuân lợi khác: Theo em, việc em tự lựa chọn hình thức luyện tập viết (như viết theo cặp, nhóm, tự phân bổ thời gian ) có giúp em viết tốt khơng? A Có B Có khơng đáng kể C Khơng III Vì sao? Em có hay gặp khó khăn với việc lựa chọn chủ đề viết không? A Thường xuyên B Thỉnh thoảng C Hiếm D Không Em gặp phải vấn đề viết chủ đề em lựa chọn? Em cảm thấy giáo viên bạn bình luận quan điểm mình? A Hào hứng B Xấu hổ C Bình thường D Lo lắng E Thất vọng F Cảm giác khác: Có ý kiến cho rằng, việc đánh giá viết sinh viên nên dựa vào lực ngôn ngữ họ Em có đồng ý với ý kiến khơng? A Em hồn tồn đồng ý B Em khơng hồn tồn đồng ý C Em khơng đồng ý D Em khơng quan tâm Vì sao? Em có muốn tiếp tục tham gia hoạt động cá nhân hóa khơng? A Có B Khơng IV C Tùy giáo viên Chân thành cảm ơn hợp tác em! V APPENDIX TABLE OF WRITING LESSONS USING PERSONALIZATION ACTIVITIES Week Unit Unit 10: Travel Language Writing tasks focus (In the course book) The past simple tense (2) Personalized writing tasks You are on holiday Look at the Personalized writing task: Two pictures Four of these things choices: played a part in your first week + You are on holiday Look at Describe your holiday the pictures Four of these things played a part in your first week Describe your holiday + Write about something that happened to you on a journey Unit 12: Health Comparatives and Write the story from the superlatives creatures’ point of view Choose one of the topics: + Write the story from the creatures’ point of view + Compare two people, things or places you like Unit 13: Be going to Write about a famous person that Write about your plans for next you admire Winners week/month/year/summer holiday or after leaving college Unit 14: The present perfect tense Image you have been on three Choose one of the two topics: VI Experiences expeditions Write a paragraph + Image you have been on three expeditions Write a paragraph + Write about what you have/haven’t done in your life VII APPENDIX APPENDIX 4.1 SAMPLE LESSON PLANS WITH PERSONALIZATION ACTIVITIES SAMPLE LESSON PLAN (Week of Try-out) UNIT 10: TRAVEL WRITING SKIL Date of teaching: 07/6/2014 Class: CD7A4 Number of students: 54 Number of absent students: …… The aim of the lesson: By the end of the lesson, the students will be able to write a paragraph about events in the past Time: 40 mins (not including time for class organization) Requirement: The students must have learned the past simple tense Writing task (in the course book): You are on a holiday Look at the picture Four of these things played a part in your first week Describe your holiday Teaching procedure: (Using personalization activities; using Vietnamese when necessary.) Stages Teacher’s activities Students’ Activities Teaching materials Pre-writing - Asking students to remember about a - Remember about a special event in the past, e.g - Chalk stage special event in their past like a a holiday, a birthday party, a journey, etc - Board (10 mins) holiday, a birthday party, a journey, - Course book etc - Taking an example (relating the topic - Listen to the teacher’ example and think of their - Chalk VIII to her own experience): “For me, my own - Board special event was my last birthday - Course book party” - Listen to the instruction - Introducing the personalized writing task: “Now you are going to write about what happened in that event” - “What you want to include in your - “The name of event, where, when, who joined, writing? Please tell me.” what happened, etc.” - Listing what the students say on the - Make a list of information about their own board “Good Now you have had a list event Example: of what to be written about Please, Event: A trip make a list of your own event and fill When? Last summer in it with information” Where? At Halong Bay + Give an example of the teacher’s Who? Family, neighbors own: What? Swam, had good meals, etc Event: Birthday party Feelings: Happy, excited When? Last year Where? At a restaurant Who? Parents, sister, close friends What? Amazing gifts - Chalk IX Feelings: Happy - “And now, - Board use this list of - Course book information to write a paragraph about - Listen to the instructions your event” While-writing - Telling the students they should write - Listen to the instructions stage in 20 mins - Choosing to work in pairs, groups, or on their (20 mins) - Reminding them of the verb tense own - Telling the students, “You may work - Discussing with friends in pairs, or groups with friends, or on - Writing about their event your own.” - Asking the teacher for help when necessary - Going round, observing the students working - Helping them when necessary Post-writing - Asking the students to stop writing stage (10 mins) - Finishing their writings - Asking them to re-read and correct the writing mistakes on their own - Board - Rereading - Asking Sts to exchange their writings - Self- correcting with friends for peer- correction in they would like - Chalk - Exchanging their writings with friends for peer- X - Course book - Collecting some students’ papers and correction if they would like reminding them of the most noticeable mistakes - Listening and checking their works - Asking students to complete their writings (May be done at home) - Completing their writings (may be done at home.) Teaching experiences: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… XI